Les Claypool’s Duo de Twang Announces Debut Album

Les Claypool is never one to stand still, a fact that is evidenced by his many musical groups. Now his latest project, Les Claypool’s Duo de Twang, has announced that their debut album Four Foot Shack will be released on February 4th via ATO Records.

Claypool is joined by longtime friend and guitarist Bryan Kehoe for the group. Together the acoustic duo create bare bones, rootsy versions of traditional tunes as well as the bassist’s own tunes. Other covers include classics by Primus, the Bee Gees, and Alice in Chains. The band’s configuration puts each of the 15 songs into a brand new light.

“The Twang project is me exploring a lot of stuff that I personally listen to; Johnny Horton, Vernon Dalhart, Jerry Reed, Bob Wills, Eddy Cochran stuff like that – it’s another door for me to open,” Claypool states. “I’m doing this sort of Luther Perkins, Johnny Cash guitar-ish type part on my bass, by doing the old ding-dinka-ding, dinka-ding-dinka-ding on a lot of the stuff. It took me a little bit to get that. Now that I’ve gotten it, I can pull songs out of the air and it’s surprising how many songs easily succumb to the twang, and can be complimented by the twang. When all is said and done, it’s just a hell of a fun project for me right now. I’ll do it ’til it’s not fun anymore.”

For a taste of what’s to come, Duo de Twang has released a video teaser for their album as well as their version of “Jerry Was a Race Car Driver.”